BRIEFING #1
National Project Launch
COMPLETED 9/24/24, 2:30 - 3:30 ET
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WHAT: This pre-election briefing was the official launch of the Election Overtime project, and featured an overview of resources for journalists, presentations from members of our speakers’ bureau, and projections for priority races nationally.
AUDIENCE: National and state reporters as well as interested members of the public.
SPEAKERS
Listed in order of appearance.
Heather Balas
Heather Balas, Vice President of the Election Reformers Network, will moderate the briefing and provide context on the Election Overtime legal briefing materials. She brings over 25 years of experience in public policy, including research, citizen deliberation, advocacy, and voter education. Heather is a senior consultant to the Carter Center, advising on reforms to strengthen American democracy. Heather is the previous President and Executive Director of New Mexico First, a cross-partisan public policy organization co-founded by former U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici. She holds a master’s degree in political communication from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in journalism. |
Kevin Johnson
Kevin Johnson, Executive Director of the Election Reformers Network, will present newly released survey data on voter understanding of the rule of law in elections, as well as context around the increased attention to certification procedures in the U.S. He is the co-founder ERN, and since 2017, has led the organization’s research and advocacy programs focused on impartial election administration, independent redistricting, and election protection. Kevin draws on decades of experience supporting emerging democracies overseas and advancing reforms in the U.S. Kevin holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from Yale University. |
Rashad Mahmood
An experienced print, online, and radio journalist. Rashad Mahmood works to support local news media in New Mexico as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Local News Fund. His organization partners with ERN to pilot the “Election Overtime” concept in 2022. Rashad focuses on local news equity, ensuring that all people and communities have access to the news and information they need. Before coming to New Mexico a decade ago, he worked in international development in Washington, DC, Egypt, and Iraq. |
Jason Carter
Jason Carter chairs The Carter Center’s Board of Trustees and is the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. A lawyer and politician, Jason served in the Georgia State Senate from 2010 to 2015 and was the Democratic Party nominee for governor of Georgia in the 2014 election. During his tenure in the Georgia legislature, Jason sponsored ethics reform legislation, including limits on lobbyists' gifts to legislators and redistricting reforms. Jason served in the Peace Corps, stationed in South Africa. He holds an undergraduate degree from Duke University and attended law school at the University of Georgia, where he graduated summa cum laude. |
Ben Ginsberg
Ben Ginsberg, a nationally known political law advocate who has represented four of the last six Republican Presidential nominees, is the Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and co-chair of two nonprofits that aid election officials in enhancing confidence in American elections: the Pillars of the Community project and the Election Officials Legal Defense Network. He also served as co-chair of the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration, which produced a much-lauded report on recommendations improve U.S. elections. He appears frequently on television as an on-air commentator about the law and politics. |
Kim Wyman
Kim Wyman served as Washington’s 15th Secretary of State and is a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center. A Republican, her career in elections spanned 30 years at the state and local levels. She successfully pioneered some of the country's first vote-by-mail elections and collaborated on many national election administration and cybersecurity initiatives including the Electronic Registration and Information Center (ERIC). Respected for her bipartisan leadership, Kim was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden to serve as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Senior Election Security Advisor. She served in that capacity for 19 months before moving to BPC. |
Carmen J. López
Carmen J. López is President of CL Strategies, a company that supports communities to build a representative and accessible democracy. She previously served as the Senior Director of Democracy at the State Innovation Exchange, the Democracy Policy Officer at the Thornburg Foundation. Carmen currently co-leads Observe New Mexico Elections. Carmen earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a BA in Political Science and Women’s Studies from Mount Holyoke College. |
Ari Mittlman
Ari Mittleman serves as Executive Director of Keep Our Republic. For nearly a decade, he held various senior roles with a U.S. Senator. Conversant in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, he has worked on peace and reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia, helping to deepen ties between these countries and the United States. |
David L. Nevins
David L. Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and a frequent contributing writer to the outlet. He is also co-founder and Board Chair of the Bridge Alliance. David is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on public leadership. He established and continues to work with the Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State and holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. |